pelosi, understand that we must approach a national disaster such as the superstorm together. and as a body, whether it was anita lowey, rodney frelinghuysen, chris smith, michael grimm, frank lobiondo, we as a body understood we had a job to do. the gentlewoman from new york, the ranking member of this committee, louise slaught, and i understood the responsibility. because we had people back home like mayor william acres of seaside heights, new jersey, who talked to jon runyan or perhaps sylvia pa tellow -- patello talked to her congressman about the need of the communities. one nation under god. the united states coming together at a time of extreme difficulty. and that's what we have done. we have worked well together. we have worked with the governors, governors from pennsylvania, new york, certainly governor christie of new jersey. mayor bloomberg of new york. people who got together and worked. we did wait for the president's declaration of a national emergency. and we did after 40 days and some few hours after that receive the bill. but i think this house of representat